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Warlock
A warlock is a magic user who gains power through pacts with powerful entities. Culture Warlocks have an overall poor reputation, a result of their dealings with otherworldly and often malevolent outsiders. However, not all warlocks are evil by nature and may use such deadly gifts for more benign purposes. Like sorcerers many warlocks come from a supernatural bloodline and it has been said that warlocks are "born, not made." This is not true for all warlocks, though many do indeed come from fiendish bloodlines. Those that aren't are still often touched by destiny in some special way, sought out by powerful extraplanar forces as tools and minions, altering their soul and giving them supernatural abilities beyond the ken of most mortals. Tieflings and others of fiendish blood are powerfully drawn to the ways of the warlock and are among the most common to take the path. Humans, thanks in large part to their capacity for ambition, also breed many warlocks, hoping to find a path to power that does not take them a significant portion of their short lifespans. Half-orcs are also commonly warlocks, in part because the powers that choose to give patronage to warlocks do not discriminate between them and other, more "purebred" races. Abilities Warlock use invocations, which are released through sheer force of will rather than by trained practice or innate ability. Invocations tend to be more powerful and deadly than those of a wizard or sorcerer, though with limited range or area of effect. Some invocations are less inherently deadly but instill terror or confusion in an enemy and warlocks are adept in cursing those with whom they fight. The most basic of all invocations is called an eldritch blast and is essentially a charged blast of pure arcane energy. When forced into combat, experienced warlocks often elude enemy blows through spells of flying, teleportation, or invisibility. As a result of their pacts, warlocks channel arcane power with more ease than most other arcanists, though this power is most particularly focused around a warlock's pact. This difference in the acquisition of magical power makes warlocks intrinsically different than their fellow spell casters. Unlike other arcanists, warlocks were not limited to a number of spells per day, but instead could unleash each of their powers as often as they wanted, though at the cost of versatility. Warlocks have some degree of training the use of basic weapons and leather armor, which gives them a slight edge over both wizards and sorcerers in non-magical, though still leaving them vulnerable to the attacks of more specialized combatants. For the most part, warlocks, like other arcanists, rely on their magic as both a shield and a weapon and the tools a warlock is most likely to use are his or her implements. For this purpose most warlocks use rods or wands though specialized weapons, pact blades being the most common, can sometimes be used by highly experienced warlocks to enhance their invocations. Several warlocks learn additional abilities to help them. From their ties to dark power, some warlocks, gain a resistance to cold iron over time. Others learn to make their bodies more resilient, healing more quickly through their fiendish power, sometimes at extraordinary rates. Similarly, many warlocks acquire resistance to various energy types, particularly attacks that use acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic energy as a major component. Lastly, some warlocks become so full of arcane power that they are able to literally imbue mundane items with their power at a whim, creating magical items of great value, even if he does not possess the knowledge typically necessary to create such an item. Prestige Classes *Warlock Battlelord *Necrolock *Force Missle Warlock Category:Warlocks Category:Classes